Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $49.93 Million Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 824,260 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 12,050 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.16% of Centene worth $49,934,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Centene by 693.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,346,000 after acquiring an additional 1,490,935 shares during the last quarter. Harris Associates L P raised its stake in shares of Centene by 5.7% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,980,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,825 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 15.4% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after purchasing an additional 428,100 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Centene by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,082,000 after buying an additional 343,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the third quarter worth $19,464,000. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Centene

In other news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II purchased 5,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $58.86 per share, for a total transaction of $294,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,353,780. This trade represents a 27.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Greco acquired 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $59.75 per share, for a total transaction of $1,015,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,153,712.75. This represents a 736.25 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $1,409,954 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on CNC. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price target (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Argus lowered Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.92.

Centene Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Centene stock opened at $60.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. Centene Co. has a 52-week low of $55.03 and a 52-week high of $80.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.61.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

About Centene

Centene Corporation operates as a healthcare enterprise that provides programs and services to under-insured and uninsured families, commercial organizations, and military families in the United States. The company operates through Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other segments. The Medicaid segment offers health plan coverage, including medicaid expansion, aged, blind, disabled, children’s health insurance program, foster care, medicare-medicaid plans, long-term services and support.